08/23/2026
"Thefts don't become gifts, lies don't become truths, crimes don't become laws, corruption doesn't become justice, wrongs don't become rights, tyranny doesn't become liberty, and aggression doesn't become consent just because it's implemented or accepted by a majority."
~~~
"We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."
~ Frank Sinatra
~~~
"Actions always prove why words mean nothing."
Donald Trump: "We've got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt."
Bob Woodward: "How long would that take?"
Trump: "I think I could do it fairly quickly .... "
Woodward: "What's fairly quickly?"
Trump: "Well, I would say over a period of eight years .... "
Woodward: "Would you ever be open to tax increases .... "
Trump: "I don't think I'll need to .... "
March 31, 2016
~~~
"I love debt. I love playing with it. I'm the king of debt. I'm great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me. I've made a fortune by using debt."
~ Donald Trump
~~~
USA National Debt
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
USA Published National Debt
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/about/our_national_debt
USAspending: Government Spending Open Data
https://www.usaspending.gov/
Monetary Base: Currency in Circulation (MBCURRCIR)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MBCURRCIR
Currency in Circulation (DISCONTINUED) (CURRCIR)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CURRCIR
CPI Inflation Calculator
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
Inflation Calculator
https://www.in2013dollars.com/
100 Years of the Income Tax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CaPzxU9Ip8
Revenue Act of 1862
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1862
Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Federal Reserve System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System
Executive Order 6102
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
US National Debt, US Total Debt, US Unfunded Liabilities
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Gift Contributions to Reduce Debt Held by the Public
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/gift/gift.htm
Welcome to Trade Ticker - the web's only up-to-the-second counter for the U.S. Trade Deficit.
http://americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp
Accumulated Trade Deficit Clock
https://sherman.house.gov/legislation/trade-deficit
~~~
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation....
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.... Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government....
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent...."
~ The Declaration of Independence
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby...."
~ Article VI
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion."
~ Article IV, Section 4
"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections ... shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof...."
~ Article I, Section 4
"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
~ Speech opposing aid to refugees,” January 10, 1794.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
~ Second Amendment
"No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
~ Amendment V
"The President shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
~ Article II, Section 1
"The Senators and Representatives, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution."
~ Article VI
~~~
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves. It is not, I say, unfrequent to see such instances, though at the same time I esteem it a justice due to my country to say that it is not without shining examples of the contrary kind; — examples of men of a distinguished attachment to this same liberty I have been describing; whom no hopes could draw, no terrors could drive, from steadily pursuing, in their sphere, the true interests of their country; whose fidelity has been tried in the nicest and tenderest manner, and has been ever firm and unshaken....
The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath'd to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. — Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event....
Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature. The supreme power cannot justly take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person or by his representative...."
~ Samuel Adams
~~~
"The origin of all civil government, justly established, must be a voluntary compact, between the rulers and the ruled; and must be liable to such limitations, as are necessary for the security of the absolute rights of the latter; for what original title can any man or set of men have, to govern others, except their own consent? To usurp dominion over a people, in their own despite, or to grasp at a more extensive power than they are willing to entrust, is to violate that law of nature, which gives every man a right to his personal liberty; and can, therefore, confer no obligation to obedience...."
~ Alexander Hamilton, Military Commander (American Revolution-Independence), Federalist Papers
~~~
"The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own....
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
~ John Adams, President
~~~
"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind. The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and in their management. I place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale....
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual....
A free people claim their rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate. The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression...."
~ Thomas Jefferson, President
author of Declaration of Independence
~~~
"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government. With respect to the words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions. It is to be remarked that the phrase out of which this doctrine is elaborated, is copied from the old articles of Confederation, where it was always understood as nothing more than a general caption to the specified powers, and it is a fact that it was preferred in the new instrument for that very reason as less liable than any other to misconstruction....
I have always conceived -- I believe those who proposed the Constitution conceived -- it is still more fully known, and more material to observe, that those who ratified the Constitution conceived -- that this is not an indefinite government, deriving its powers from the general terms prefixed to the specified powers -- but a limited government, tied down to the specified powers, which explain and define the general terms. The terms 'common defence and general welfare' are not novel terms first introduced into this Constitution. They are terms familiar in their construction, and well known to the people of America. They are found in the old Articles of Confederation. It was always considered clear and certain that the old Congress was limited to the enumerated powers, and that the enumeration limited and explained the general terms. If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their Own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit of the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare....
A pure Democracy, by which I mean a Society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the Government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of Government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party, or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is, that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of Government, have erroneously supposed, that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions....
Without going farther into the subject, I venture to declare it as my opinion, that, were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America; and what inferences might be drawn, or what consequences ensue, from such a step, it is incumbent on us all to consider...."
~ James Madison, President, "Father of Constitution", Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers
